Out here in Phoenix land, some businesses have created their own “currency,” called PHX BUX.

It’s a coin, not paper scrip.

The idea is to corral consumers into shopping locally. Each store owner in the system buys a coin for a dollar—and the coins are worth a dollar at the cash register of another participating store.

The store owners often give a little premium to someone using a PHX BUX coin—such as an extra “frequency” stamp on their coffee card.

This has been tried elsewhere, too, in Michigan and the Berkshires in NY State.

The store owner says the biggest plus is to get people talking about money and life.

This will date me, but when I was a sprout, back in Missouri, they had these red and green plastic disks called “mills.” There were to pay part of a penny in tax. That’s when they didn’t just round up and suck it out of your pocket like now.